Ghouls 'n Ghosts
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| Ghouls 'n Ghosts | |
|---|---|
 Promotional flyer for the original arcade iteration of Ghouls 'n Ghosts |
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| Developer(s) | Capcom |
| Publisher(s) | Capcom |
| Designer(s) | Tokuro Fujiwara S. Yoshimoto H. Yamamoto |
| Release date(s) | December, 1988 |
| Genre(s) | Platform game / Run and gun |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation, SuperGrafx, Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Virtual Console, ZX Spectrum |
| Input | 8-way joystick, 2 buttons |
| Arcade cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system(s) | CPS-1 |
| Arcade display | Raster, standard resolution, horizontal orientation |
Ghouls 'n Ghosts (大魔界村 Dai Makaimura, or "Great Demon World Village" in Japan) is a platform game/run and gun developed by Capcom and released as an arcade game in 1988, and subsequently ported to a number of other platforms. It is the sequel to Ghosts 'n Goblins, and forerunner to the Super NES game Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts.
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[edit] Gameplay
The gameplay for Ghouls n' Ghosts is similar to that of Ghosts 'n Goblins. The player controls the knight Arthur, who must advance through a series of eerie levels and defeat a number of undead and demonic creatures in his quest to restore souls stolen by Lucifer (Loki in the English-language Sega Genesis and Sega Master System versions), including the soul of his bride, Princess Prin Prin. Along the way, Arthur can pick up a variety of weapons and armor to help him in his quest.
[edit] Series innovations
While the core gameplay remains the same as its predecessor, there are a few extra abilities granted to Arthur, aside from the abilities to jump and fire weapons. By holding up on the joystick while firing a weapon, Arthur will throw the weapon straight into the air, which is very handy for attacking airborne enemies such as the Red Arremer.
By jumping in certain spots, Arthur can cause a treasure chest to erupt from the ground. By firing his weapon at the chest, Arthur may find new weapons, an evil magician that can change him into an elderly man or a helpless duck, or the gold armor. The gold armor allows Arthur to charge up his weapon to release a powerful magical attack. Each weapon has its own magic attack.
These innovations softened the difficulty a bit, although it is still considered by many to be ludicrously difficult, despite being considered the least difficult of the series.
[edit] Weapons
Arthur is armed with one of the following weapons. Only one can be carried at any time.
- Lance
- Arthur begins with this weapon. It moves in a straight line across the screen. The Lance's magic power is a lightning spell, which causes Arthur to fire lighting bolts to his left, right, and directly above himself.
- Dagger
- The dagger behaves like the lance, but it is much faster, and Arthur can throw three at once, instead of just two. The Dagger's magic causes Arthur to create a mirror image of himself for a short time, which will follow Arthur's every move. This can be used to attack twice as fast as normal.
- Torch
- Arthur lobs a torch a short distance in front of himself, which burns the ground for a short period of time. Generally considered a difficult weapon to use effectively. The Torch's magic causes four fireballs to encircle Arthur and spread out.
- Axe
- The axe travels very slowly, but it can cut through enemies, allowing you to attack multiple enemies at once. Arthur can only throw a single axe at a time. The Axe's magic causes explosions to erupt in the area near Arthur.
- Sword
- The only non-projectile weapon. Arthur simply swings the sword in front of himself. To make up for its short range, the sword is twice as powerful as Arthur's other weapons. The sword's magic causes a dragon to appear and attack enemies.
- Discus
- The discus is similar to the Lance, but if you kneel while throwing it, it will hug the ground, which is useful on hilly terrain. The Discus' magic makes a mirror appear directly in front of Arthur, which will protect him, and damage any enemies that come in contact with it.
- Psycho Cannon
- The Psycho Cannon can only be obtained on Arthur's second time through the game, and it is the only weapon that can defeat Lucifer. He can find it by opening a treasure chest while wearing the gold armor. Arthur throws a blast of magic directly in front of himself. The attack's range is dependent on what armor Arthur is wearing. If he's in his boxers, the range is extremely short, while it's more respectable when he's wearing gold armor. Additionally, with the gold armor, it can destroy enemy projectiles. The strength of the Psycho Cannon depends on how close Arthur is to an enemy when he uses it. If Arthur attacks from close range, it is easily the most powerful weapon in the game.
[edit] Levels
The game comprises six levels, each with an end-of-level boss who must be defeated before progressing to the next stage. The final level can only be accessed after beating the previous five levels twice, and only if Arthur possesses the Psycho Cannon.
[edit] The Execution Place and Floating Island
As in the other games in the series, the first level is a cemetery. Instead of being inhabited by traditional zombies, though, there are Skeleton Murderers, which are numerous miniature versions of Death, complete with hoods and scythes. Arthur must fight through a number of these creatures, along with vultures, while avoiding giant guillotines, until he can cross over to the Floating Island. After braving a windstorm and numerous porcine ogres, Arthur must defeat the boss, Dullahan.
[edit] The Village of Decay and Town of Fire
The first part of this level is set in a village, which is comprised of giant evil turtles and insects. Arthur must navigate rickety bridges over antlions, and avoid dangerous windmills, as well as fend off his first Red Arremer. Arthur then must cross a collapsing bridge towards the main part of town. The main part of the town is now in flames, and Arthur will be faced with flaming bats before he makes it to Cerberus, the boss which has destroyed the town.
[edit] Baron Rankle's Tower and the Horrible Faced Mountain
Following the rescue of the town, Arthur must now venture on his main quest - to save (his) castle. He enters Baron Rankle's tower, a huge fallen tower which can only lead to who knows where but is in the direction to the castle and may provide a way to cross a deep chasm (the latter part of the level). The first part of this stage is similar to an elevator, as Arthur is trapped in a confined space that is constantly moving vertically. The ability to fire his weapon vertically will be needed as he fends off knights that erupt from the walls and bats that drop stones. The second part of the stage has Arthur navigating across a deep chasm along the tongues of evil stone heads which try to eat anyone foolish enough to walk on their tongues. After the chasm, an evil cloud boss, known as Gasutto, tries to block anyone from entering the locked double doors.
[edit] The Crystal Forest
Arthur nows finds a secret underground passage to the Castle. Despite its name, this level is actually a icy cave, but it does indeed contain numerous crystals, which will damage Arthur if they are touched. Ancient dinosaur fossils are found here which indicates that this frozen cavern is ..ancient indeed. Arthur finds himself destroying worms which appear out of the grounds, then comes to the second part of the cave. The second part of the cave is actually a series of frozen waterfalls Arthur must go down whilst trying to avoid walls of thorns (which instantly kills him in one hit) which have overgrown everywhere. Then its a deep descent to the bottom. On the bottom of the cave is a cold sea which has a vile boss resembling a giant maggot that releases smaller maggots that attack you and medium sized worms.
[edit] The Castle of Evil Demons
The Castle is the most difficult level in the game, as it is filled with Red Arremers and other dangerous enemies, including miniature versions of the previous bosses, Dullahan and Gassuto, as well as clones of Astaroth, the villain of Ghosts 'n Goblins. If Arthur can navigate to the end, he will fight Beelzebub, who resembles a giant fly. If Arthur has the Psycho Cannon, he'll proceed to Lucifer's Chamber after finishing this level. If not, or if it's Arthur's first time through the game, he'll have to start the game again.
[edit] Lucifer's Chamber
The final level consists solely of a boss fight with Lucifer. Lucifer resembles a huge demon, and can only be defeated by firing the Psycho Cannon at his head. Arthur should avoid the lasers and Lucifer's feet, move directly beneath his head, and fire upward to damage him. Lucifer can also fire a vertically directed laser from his mouth: during this time he is invincible to the Psycho Cannon shot.
[edit] Music
The original soundtrack for the arcade version was composed by Tamayo Kawamoto. Many computer ports of the game include the soundtrack by Tim Follin which consists of arrangements and some new songs. Follin's soundtrack - especially Commodore 64, Atari ST (which both implement each machines' 'chiptune' synthesizers although the selection of pieces and some scoring differs slightly between computers) and Amiga versions (of which the playlist is again slightly different) - is respected among computer game music listeners and also got appreciation from reviewers when the game was published. It is well worth obtaining the music for all versions released to fully appreciate and enjoy Follin's (and indeed Kawamoto's) talented achievements.
[edit] Ports
The game has been adapted to a number of home consoles and other systems, the most notable being:
- Sega Master System
- Sega released this port in 1990; several graphical similarities suggest that it was an adaptation of the Mega Drive port (see below) instead of a straight port of the original. While the graphics suffered a drastical cut, the soundtrack is translated quite competently given the limited capacity of the system's original sound chip. Also, the Two Player Mode was removed.
- This version is notable for adding some new elements to the original's gameplay, and severely changing others. The weapon and armor system was completely overhauled: some chests now contained doors that led to chambers in which Arthur could choose different weapons or upgrade his armor's individual pieces, each piece having four possible power levels (silver, red, green and gold). Boots would boost Arthur's run and jump abities, breastplates would give him additional hit points (to a maximum of four plus the last "underpants" point) and helmets would grant him new magic spells, so these didn't depend now on the current weapon and could be charged and used at any time as long as Arthur had still his armor on. Each one of the six available spells had their own power gauge, so their usage was limited. The first five spells (fire, thunder, shield, double and bomb) were much powerful versions of some of the original weapon-based spells (torch, javelin, discus, dagger and axe spells respectively). For example, the bomb/axe spell would damage every enemy on the screen instead of affecting only the ones close to Arthur, and the shield/discus spell would make Arthur invincible for several seconds, making some segments of the game very easy; the sixth spell, "heal", allowed the player to restore his hit points once. All the weapons from the original were available, except for the sword and the torch; also, a new weapon -the fireball- was introduced. While it was the most powerful weapon in the game, obtaining the Psycho Cannon was still necessary for reaching the final boss' level. Finally, there was a different type of chest chamber in which the player could choose to regenerate either Arthur's hit points or magic points.
- The general look of the levels was maintained, but with several changes and adjusts: each level was now divided in two sublevels with a transition in between (coinciding with the continue points in the original) and some specially complex enemies and effects were removed, such as the root tentacles in the first level. The boss fights were no longer integrated in the level (a chest containining a door to the boss chamber would pop up after reaching the exit gate of the level); also, because of the Master System's limited graphics management capabilities, the bosses were rendered as mobile backgrounds with only small animated parts; while the result was quite impressive for the system, it meant some of the boss attack patterns had to be completely redesigned (for example, Gasutto's from the third level, turned into a rigid, lightning bolt-shooting hovering cloud).
- Some of the gameplay changes mentioned above (such as the extra hit points and the magic spells), along with the possibility of continuing an unlimited number of times diluted almost completely the challenging difficulty level of the original game, but this port is still considered a decent game by the Master System fans.
- Sega Mega Drive
- Reprogramed and released in 1989 by Sega, this port featured an almost perfect translation of the original arcade gameplay, but with noticeable graphical cuts (less detailed backgrounds, missing animations and effects, etc) and the introduction cutscene removed completely (oddly, a part of this scene is still played in the ending cutscene, as it was in the original).
- The difficulty level was also toned down, adding a 'Practice' setting with weaker enemies; the game also featured infinite credits in every difficulty setting, additional continue points and even an easily unlockable cheat mode that allowed the player to become invincible against enemy attacks or slowing down the gameplay.
- Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation
- The second volume of Capcom Generations, which Capcom released in 1998 in Japan and later in Europe was titled "Chronicles of Arthur" and included perfect arcade translations of Ghouls n' Ghosts and Ghosts n' Goblins along with Super Ghouls'n Ghosts.
- Supergrafx
- The Supergrafx port, released in 1990, was considered the best home port of the game until the release of Capcom Generations in 1998 (see above). It featured superior graphics than those of the Mega Drive port, both in detail and animation quality, but with a noticeable loss in color depth and sound quality.
- The gameplay was perfectly translated from the original, but the player was only allowed to continue three times, so the difficulty level was even higher than in the original arcade version.
[edit] External links
- Ghouls 'n Ghosts at MobyGames
- Ghouls 'n Ghosts at the Killer List of Videogames
- Ghouls 'n Ghosts Dossier Titan (french fan page)
- The Ghosts 'n Goblins Series Online
- Ghouls 'n Ghosts at World of Spectrum
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Ghosts 'n Goblins video games
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Ghosts 'n Goblins • Ghouls 'n Ghosts • Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts • Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins |
